The investigation into the death of Smiley Culture found no fault on the part of the police, the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission), the British equivalent of our Inspection Générale des Services, the police watchdog, has declared.
Dead on 15 March 2011 in circumstances that were then unexplained (news of 15/03/2011), Smiley Culture was accused, along with four others, of cocaine trafficking. The author of Cockney Translation and Police Officer allegedly stabbed himself with a kitchen knife while police were raiding his flat in Warlingham in search of evidence.
While the IPCC inquiry condemns the raid, it finds no police misconduct: there is no evidence of a criminal offence by the police officers, states the summary of the commission's report (it will not be made public in full).
Nevertheless, the commission raised concerns about the "operational planning and risk management" of the operation carried out by the police.
Smiley Culture's family is not backing down: “We firmly believe Smiley was assassinated and that the IPCC have let us down and treated us dreadfully,” Merlin Emmanuel, the singer's nephew, told the Guardian.
His family wants to understand why the four officers handcuffed him after his fatal wound, even though an independent report concluded that the stab wound would have caused "rapid collapse and death within minutes".
The newspaper points out that none of the officers present during Smiley Culture's death has been suspended, and that they were treated by the IPCC as witnesses, not suspects.
"They promised us a thorough investigation. But there are still so many unanswered questions, and the IPCC has made sure that the officers who saw what happened will not be in a great hurry to tell the truth about what happened that day," adds Merlin Emmanuel.